Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run with 2-10 second hill sprints at the end. Average pace: 10:56/mile.

Weather @ 6:15 am: 17°F, humidity 57%, wind 8.6 mph (avg) SSE

My easy pace was slow today. I guess I needed a recovery day after last Saturday's long run. We got about an inch or so of snow on Saturday afternoon/evening, but a fair amount melted away yesterday, especially in places that had been shoveled. So I had clear sidewalks for more than 1/2 of my run, but there were big sections that were snowy/icy, specifically one street that I was on for about a mile, and the bike trail that I was on for aboutg a half mile at the end of the run. Fortunately, the hill where I do the hill sprints (and which connects to the main bike trail) was clear, probably because it is south-facing.

I goofed up and hit the start/stop button instead of the lap button at the start of my first hill sprint, so I don't have stats for that hill sprint. The second hill sprint was 10.18 seconds @ 7:28/mile pace. The first hill sprint was probably similar.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do 12 miles with the first 6 easy and the second 6 moderate. I'm a little apprehensive about doing such a long run on a weekday. I'm going to have to get up really early to get it done before work. I'm thinking that I'll do two 6 mile loops, maybe the same loop twice, or maybe two different loops rather than venturing too far from home. If I run too far in one direction I have to deal with more hills. And it just feels more comforting to be relatively close to home the whole time.

Objective: Progression run - 6 miles easy, 6 miles moderate

Weather from 5:15-7:15 am: 27°F, 41% humidity, wind 8 mph NW

My mile splits for the first six miles ranged from 10:53 to11:34. It seems that when I'm doing a relatively long progression run, I run the easy part really slowly in anticipation of having to speed up, slower than I go when I'm doing an easy run of the same length or seven longer.

My mile splits for the last six miles ranged from 8:32 to 9:41.

I went out wearing a hooded sweatshirt and two pairs of gloves (among other things, but these things are pertinent to the story). I knew right off that the sweatshirt was too much, and I took it off after the first mile. I thought about passing by my house at some point and dropping it off, but I didn't do it. Instead I tied it around my waist. A little while later, I took off the outer pair of gloves and put them in the pockets of the sweatshirt, the right glove in the right pocket and the left glove in the left pocket. I ran like this for quite a while and then at the end of the 9th mile, I took off the other pair of gloves and put them in the pockets, right in right, left in left. At the end of the 11th mile, I wanted to put one pair of gloves back on, so I reached in my pockets and found no gloves in my left pocket. I had dropped both left gloves somewhere along the way. I continued on and finished the run, then when I got home I got in the car and drove around for a half an hour peering at sidewalks looking for my gloves. When I had given up and was heading home I spotted one of the gloves and stopped and picked it up. It was from the outer pair of gloves. I looked all around but couldn't see the other glove. I'm worried if they both fell out at the same time, because I found the one glove near the curb of a busy intersection and I'm worried that the one glove might have gotten run over and carried away by traffic. And the missing glove is a smartwool glove liner that I got for Christmas. I know that I lost that glove somewhere between the end of the 9th mile, when I took it off, and the end of the 11th mile, where I realized it was gone, so I'll probably run that section tomorrow and look for it. That will make tomorrow's run a little longer than I had intended, but oh well. I was going to run short tomorrow because I'll need a recovery day after today's run, and I need to prepare my son's birthday breakfast. I guess losing a glove, even an expensive one, isn't the end of the world. Still, I would like to find it.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:26/mile.

Weather at 7:00 am: 39°F, 41% humidity, wind 12 mph NW.

I ran a loop that included the two mile stretch within which I lost my glove yesterday and . . . I found my glove! It was on the grass right beside the sidewalk at the crest of a very small hill. Yippee!

I just ran easy today, and it didn't feel appreciably different in terms of effort than the 6 easy miles from the first half of yesterday's run. However, all of my mile splits today were faster than any of my easy miles yesterday and slower than any of my moderate miles yesterday. I was surprised how good I felt today after yesterdays hard workout, but that's not the thing I'm wondering about. Was I so slow on the easy portion yesterday just because I was anticipating having to speed up, or is the difference that I had my face covered during the easy miles yesterday and I didn't have my face covered today? I'm wondering whether covering my face restricts the flow of oxygen to the point that it forces me to run slower. Just a thought.

I got a late start on my run today because I had to make a birthday breakfast for my son and it needed to be ready at 6:30. I didn't want to get up early enough to be done with my run in time to cook breakfast, especially since I didn't get to bed early last night.

Progression run - 8 miles easy except last 10 minutes moderate. Average pace: 10:16.

Split times for miles 1-7 range from 10:12 through 10:56. Mile 8 - 8:42.

Weather at 5:50 am: 37°F, 53% humidity, winds 6.6 mph SSE. 

I was a stupid idiot and could have gotten myself killed this morning. There are three places on the route I ran today where I have to cross a busy street, each time at a light that has a walk signal. I stopped at the first one and hit the button for the walk signal, took a drink and then looked around and not could see any cars in either direction, so I headed across the street against the light. About halfway across the street, I saw a car crest a hill to my right (I hadn't noticed the small hill in the dark) and speed towards me. I poured on the speed and ran the rest of the way across the street (the street is about 8 lanes wide) as fast as I could and avoided getting hit.

I was berating myself for being stupid and vowed never to cross against the light again and then I got to the second place where I needed to cross a busy street (not quite as big or busy as the first one). When I arrived at the intersection, the light was green in the direction I was going. Not wanting to stop, I started across the road. I hadn't gotten very far across the street when the light turned yellow and it was red before I got to the other side. To my good fortune, the car that was in a position to hit me was stopped waiting for the light, saw me crossing in front of him, and waited for me.

Lesson finally learned, I waited for the walk signal at the third crossing (which was the same street I had crossed on the first crossing, but at a different point).

I think I'm going to have to run really early tomorrow morning because I've got a conference call for work from 7 to 8 (I hope it doesn't go the whole hour), and I've got to get my son to school at 8:00 for Math Olympians and go to Donuts with Dad (though I'm neither Dad nor should I eat a donut) with my daughter at the same school at 8:00. I'll need to have the run done and be all dressed and ready to go by 7:00. I better be running by 5:00.

Easy run with 2 hill sprints. Average pace: 10:48/mile. Hill sprint #1: 10.15 sec @ 6:48/mile. Hill sprint #2: 9.8 sec. @ 6:44/mile.

Weather at 5:35 am: 37°F, 53% humidity, winds 5.8 mph NNE.

I didn't manage to get up as early as I had intended, but I did get the run in, do my conference call, and get the kids to school in time for Donuts with Dad (shame on me - I ate a donut). I showered and was dressed but not completely ready before the conference call, ate breakfast during the conference call, and then finished getting ready after the call because it only went 1/2 hour instead of the hour it was scheduled for.

This is the first time I've done hill sprints in the dark. I've always been out a little later in the morning on days I've done hill sprints, I guess. So it was a little more guesswork about how far up the hill to run because, though I had the headlamp, I couldn't see all that well.

I've decided that it's not the face covering that makes me run slower some days. Some days I'm just more tired or something and just run slower. Today was one of those days. I've had kind of a high mileage week and yesterday was a rough day. At this point I'm thinking that maybe I should do 14 instead of 16 tomorrow. The "official" training plan says 14, but when I customized it for myself I bumped it up to 16 because I've done 14 the last couple of Saturdays. But my weekday mileage is higher this week than previous weeks and higher than it would be with the "official" training plan because I did 5 miles on a day that was supposed to be a rest or cross-training day.

Long run. Average pace: 10:05/mile.

Weather from 8:42 am to 11:35 am: 33.8° - 39.2°. Humidity 40%. Wind 7 mph SW.

This turned into the run where I saw things I had not seen or noticed before. I was on the Highline Canal Trail and I had gone about 4 miles and was wishing for a bathroom. I was near my friend's inlaws' house and my friend had told me I could stop there for the bathroom if I ever needed to, but I was confident that I could remember which house it was, so I kept going. A little bit later I came to street the the trail crosses. I was wishing that there was a gas station on the street, but it's in a residential area and there are no businesses. However, as I approached the street I noticed a small parking lot. Because of the lack of businesses of any kind I figured the only purpose for the parking lot was to provide access to the trail. And then I noticed a port-a-potty in the parking lot. I'm sure it's a permanent fixture there. It was like I was wishing for a bathroom, and *poof*, one magically appeared. It even had toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

When I started out on the run I was undecided about whether to do 14, 15, or 16 miles. I figured I'd run 7 and then keep going if I felt like it to either 7.5 or 8 and turn around and whichever of those points I felt like. After the bathroom stop I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to go all the way to mile marker 8 and then turn around.

A little while later I saw something else I hadn't seen before on the trail. A man riding a horse and leading another horse. I knew that horses are ridden on the trail sometimes because I've seen evidence of it, and I've seen horses in fenced areas adjacent to the trail. I had just never seen a horse on the trail before. And then a little while later I heard some roosters crowing. I looked over and noticed a little pen with chickens in it that I had never noticed before. It's a little ways from the trail and there are a few trees in the way, so it's kind of hard to see, but the roosters were making enough noise that I noticed it today.

It's funny to me that there's this semi-rural area in the middle of the Denver metro area.

When I was finishing the 10th mile, I felt like slowing down, but I remembered something I read in Daniels' Running Formula last night that said, essentially, if you feel like slowing down, speed up. So I decided to pick up the pace just a little bit. I did that and found that I could maintain that pace, so I ran the slightly faster pace for the remaining 6 miles. Not to bore anyone, but to illustrate what I did, my splits were 10:52, 10:43, 10:10, 10:01, 10:28, 10:19, 10:24, 10:11, 10:26, 10:15, (here's where I picked up the pace) 9:56, 9:46, 9:32, 9:40, 9:32, 9:14. So what was supposed to be a long run at easy pace turned into a 10 easy/ 6 moderate progression run. I put those 6 miles in fast miles even though for a lot of people they wouldn't be fast, but for me in a run of that length, they were fast.

This is the highest mileage I have ever run in a week.